During the French and Indian War period, living conditions in the frontier forts can only be described as miserable. The crude wooden barracks were cold in winter, hot in summer, leaked during rains, and were fire hazards when dry. Heavy rains could wash away earthen walls quickly, and required repair often. Clapboards and green palisades quickly rotted. Drainage was often poor, and the parades were often deep with mud. Upkeep and repair required strenuous labor and exposure to weather, and the enemy. Survival was a harsh and grim endurance contest which left cruel marks on many. Both personal diaries and official reports are filled with accounts of overwork, fatigue, diseases, torture, boredom, scarcity of female company, snakebites, excessive punishment, exposure to extremes of temperature, desertion and interpersonal friction.
Even if forts were supplied with the basics, and this was seldom the case, they were subject to certain recurring problems such as smallpox, scurvy and dysentery. But on many occasions these supplies were spoiled on arrival, intercepted and destroyed by Indians before arrival or even destroyed after arrival to keep the enemy from getting them.
Correspondence between fort commanders and public officials frequently mention that they are afflicted with a bout of some disease, large numbers of desertions, a straggler being killed after wandering too far from the walls of the fort or an account of a lashing for drunkenness or swearing. A look at the daily rations given to each soldier will show the source of many problems. But it would be an error to suppose that even this most restricted diet was always available. The following ration list was issued to Henry Bouquet by Lord Loudoun. The Contractors are Obliged to furnish the following proportions for each soldier.
During the French and Indian War period, living conditions in the frontier forts can only be described as miserable. The crude wooden barracks were cold in winter, hot in summer, leaked during rains, and were fire hazards when dry. Heavy rains could wash away earthen walls quickly, and required repair often. Clapboards and green palisades quickly rotted. Drainage was often poor, and the parades were often deep with mud. Upkeep and repair required strenuous labor and exposure to weather, and the enemy. Survival was a harsh and grim endurance contest which left cruel marks on many.
Both personal diaries and official reports are filled with accounts of overwork, fatigue, diseases, torture, boredom, scarcity of female company, snakebites, excessive punishment, exposure to extremes of temperature, desertion and interpersonal friction.
Even if forts were supplied with the basics, and this was seldom the case, they were subject to certain recurring problems such as smallpox, scurvy and dysentery. But on many occasions these supplies were spoiled on arrival, intercepted and destroyed by Indians before arrival or even destroyed after arrival to keep the enemy from getting them.
Correspondence between fort commanders and public officials frequently mention that they are afflicted with a bout of some disease, large numbers of desertions, a straggler being killed after wandering too far from the walls of the fort or an account of a lashing for drunkenness or swearing.
A look at the daily rations given to each soldier will show the source of many problems. But it would be an error to suppose that even this most restricted diet was always available. The following ration list was issued to Henry Bouquet by Lord Loudoun.
The Contractors are Obliged to furnish the following proportions for each soldier.